Meet Fiorello Estrada López, commander of Chapala’s regional division of the Jalisco Policia Vial (traffic police).
By nature, Comandante Fiorello Estrada López is blessed with a warm and friendly demeanor and a steely inner character that has fortified an ability to deal courageously with daunting personal and professional challenges.
Long before that family and close friends were aware of Estrada’s decision to identify as a male, and face the long and challenging process of transitioning from an original registered birth sex of female.
In a recent interview, Estrada answered the questions concerning traffic police business I had put on the table before expressing the desire to talk about his gender switch as a matter of personal and official transparency. It was a lengthy and deeply candid conversation.
On December 22 of last year, he appeared at Chapala’s Civil Registry to receive a new birth certificate formalizing the switch to the male gender and minor name change. That was only one point along the rocky road of a personal journey that started years before and will continue far into the future.
Estrada was already sporting a masculine cropped haircut when he (then she) was put in charge of the Chapala branch of the state traffic police. It was some months later that I learned of his intentions to formally adopt a different gender identity.
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